An exhibition of 17th and 18th Century paintings under £ 40,000.

This exhibition will prove that it is possible to find high quality paintings for a reasonable price. The paintings are over 250 years old with an interesting history and painted with great skill and attention to detail. These works of art are not just dark and dull but carefully created and thought out masterworks by artists of great talent whose names would not necessarily be widely recognised.

Highlights include a painting by Herman van Swanevelt, long thought to be the only pupil of Claude, given by a friend to Sir Peter Lely, the famous 17th Century portraitist. On the reverse is the original label documenting the gift. Apart from giving us a fascinating insight into the history of the painting it is incredibly rare to find such a label still intact on a painting that is 360 years old.

Rafael Valls Limited is a St. James’s art gallery mainly dealing in Old Master Paintings with specialist areas in Dutch, Flemish and Spanish paintings. Owned and run by Rafael Valls and his wife Caroline. It has traded for over thirty years and the gallery carries an eclectic and varied stock. The gallery has gained an enviable reputation for trompe l’oeil paintings and for the small exhibitions it holds once a year around Old Master Paintings Week.

The gallery exhibits every year at The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, which is now regarded as the finest art and antiques fair anywhere in the world.